Drawing Borders

It’s 1946. WWII ended the year prior, and the world 🌍 is still reeling in its aftermath: Japan is under US occupation. The Nuremberg Trials are in full swing. And the British Empire is crumbling.

It is clear that British India will soon be a thing of the past, but what will remain is not as obvious. Partition is seen as likely, but nobody quite knows how and where those lines will be drawn.

But when did the lack of facts ever stop people from sharing "expert" opinions? 😆

Unverified maps depicting new borders and nations were shared in magazines 📖 newspapers 📰 and on bar napkins 🍺. This speculation did not come for free, though; thousands of people relocated out of fear and confusion, leaving homes, jobs, and family members behind.

So how did the actual borders get drawn in 1947? Did Viceroy Mountbatten just pick one of the newspaper maps at random?

Honestly, after you see our next post (Partition Participants), that idea won’t sound so far-fetched... 😬